This is intended to provide a brief review of the currently-available resources for finding routes for cycling in London. Please email me (using the link at the foot of the page) if you have suggestions for additions to this page. A possible further development would be to enable members of Camden CC to post some of their own 'favourite routes'.

Paper and downloadable maps

The London Cycling Campaign/Transport for London free cycle maps

Now in their second edition, the series of 19 cycle guides are produced by TfL using route information provided by the London Cycling Campaign.
You can obtain free paper copies by calling the 24-hour travel information service on 0845 305 1234 or by filling in the order form on the above web page.

This is a high-quality free resource developed by LCC and subsidised by the Mayor/GLA.

The LCN+ web site has various online information on the state of the London Cycle Network

Transport for London Journey Planner

This system is designed to find routes and plan journeys by all modes of transport. It's cycle route planning features appear to have been enhanced during 2006.

It possible to request a 'cycling only' route, but it should be a lot easier. The method described here involves an unnecessary search for public transport journeys first. A more direct method is to use the 'More options' link on the initial page, but at the time of writing, this does not seem to work reliably (no routes are returned):

• Go to the Journey Planner page, enter your starting point and destination and click 'search'.
• This will give you a list of public transport journey options. If you want to cycle ignore these and click on 'edit search options'.
• Scroll down to the last box on the options page, labelled 'Cycle options', tick 'I want a cycle only option' and click on 'Search'.

The routes generated are usually of high quality, employing cycle paths and cycle routes where available and producing a printable PDF map with a list of roads to be followed. For example, a request for a cycle route from Kentish Town to Hampstead Station produced this very clear multi-page PDF map that even exploits one of the legal cycle paths on Hampstead Heath.

The TfL Journey Planner covers the entire London metropolitan area and surrounding parts of the southeast. For example when I asked for a cycle route from Kentish Town to St Albans I got 37-page 3.7MB PDF file with an estimated journey time of 1:46 hr. The route appeared to be well thought out.

maps. camdencyclists.org.uk - Camden Cycling Campaign's own mapping system

Draws overlays on Google Maps showing the London Cycle Network and many other utility routes and leisure routes contributed by users throughout much of London. It also offers markers for bike shops, hazards and cycle parking and a facility for LCC campaigners to record the progress of their local authority negotiations.

We have added an experimental facility for automatically planning routes within Central London developed for us by the Cambridge Cycling Campaign and we offer the option to view all the overlays over the Open Street Map instead of Google Maps.

Other relevant sites and future developments

I'm very impressed with the route-finding and mapping facility available at the Cambridge Cycling Campaign web site.

The CTC is developing a mapping facility for its members to share detailed routes of rides and tours. The route descriptions can include GPS-logged tracks that can be displayed on Google Maps or Google Earth. Something similar for urban cycle routes in London might be a worthwhile development.

Cycle Journey Planner. Bicycle promotion charity Life Cycle UK has been commissioned by the UK Department for Transport to produce the sort of point-to-point journey planner commonplace from motoring organisations such as the RAC and the AA, and mapping software. it's not online yet and it's been pending for ages, but it promises to be 'all singing and all dancing'.

August 2008